and the domestic laws of many other countries. for north korea these criminal activities are viewed as necessary to maintain the power of the regime with no regard for the fact that they are corrosive to international law and order. so the question is what steps can we take to combat north korea's illicit activities, and can our efforts to prevent these activities be used to pressure north korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile l programs? now, i just heard on the news this morning that the agreement has been made ostensibly with china to punish north korea for its missile launching nuclear tests. i hope that china will not do what it's done in the past and agree to sanctions and then just erode those sanctions so the sanctions really never took hold. i hope that china will finally understand that the north korean regime is a threat to stability in that region of the world and in many regions of the world. because as chairman royce pointed out, korea, north korea is a rogue state helping countries like syria tr